West Pokot Women Fight for Survival Amidst Climate Chaos

Arnold Ageta

West Pokot is a pastoral county located in the North Rift region of Kenya. It is popularly known for cattle rearing as its main source of income.

Unfortunately, when drought strikes, residents are forced to move from one place to another in search of pasture and water for their cattle.

Women, children, people living with disabilities, and the elderly remain behind to face the harsh realities of drought. According to a study by Crawn Trust, a community advocacy and awareness organization, 70 percent of the land in West Pokot has been affected by drought.

This condition compels the community to relocate to other areas in search of pasture and water, where some members of the community unfortunately die. Those who are lucky return home with few or no cattle, leaving their wives as widows without any source of income.

From Kitale town, I spent more than 4 hours to reach Kosholo village in Masol Ward, West Pokot. It was there that I met Ms. Cheptakal Angelei, 40, a mother of eight children.

She told me that prolonged drought forced her husband to leave their home to look for pasture for their livestock.

‘‘It has now been ten years since my husband left home, and he has never come back. I do not know where he is,’’ she lamented.

She added that her husband left her with a three-month pregnancy. She gave birth to a child who, to date, does not know who his father is.

‘‘When the drought struck, he left home. I am told all the cattle died, and he feared to come back home,’’ she recounted with sorrow.

Ms. Angelei has been forced to look for alternative means of providing for her eight children.

‘‘I hawk tea and porridge for daily subsistence and to raise school fees for my children. When my children get sick, I bear the medical bill burden alone, with no one to depend on. Moreover, business is very low nowadays. I am straining a lot,’’ she explained.

One kilometer from Ms. Angelei’s home is the home of Ms. Jane, 39, whose husband left 15 years ago. Ms. Jane has 10 children who miss their father’s love, care, and protection at home. Her husband left home for Turkana County in search of pasture for their cattle but has since not returned home.

‘‘When drought hit this area, my husband and his colleagues left with the cattle and goats. He instructed me to take care of the children and promised to come back. To date, he has not come back home,’’ she said with tears in her eyes.

She added that when the drought persisted, killing all his livestock, her husband vowed not to come home. He did not want to watch his children die of hunger due to the prolonged drought. Like Ms. Angelei, Ms. Jane engages in selling tea and porridge to support her ten children’s education.

Human activities are the main contributors to climate change. The effects of climate change sting women and children most. Water is life, and everyone has a right to it.

Whenever drought comes, people in arid and semi-arid areas are forced to walk hundreds of kilometers to look for water to quench their thirst. Cutting down trees and rearing a large number of livestock in the same place for a long period contribute to environmental degradation.

West Pokot Chief Executive Committee Member (CEC) for Agriculture and Livestock, Wilfred Longuronyang, has urged residents of West Pokot to plant drought-resistant crops to mitigate the effects of climate change.

‘‘I am asking people to accept growing drought-resistant crops to get food. I also appeal to women to look for alternative sources of income, like planting vegetables,’’ he pleaded with them.

Neighboring West Pokot to the east is Baringo County. In Kiptorongon village, Kasiela location, I met Ms. Everline, 36, a widow, breastfeeding her six-month-old baby. The baby did not have a chance to meet her father. Her father died on his mission to look for pasture and water for his livestock.

‘‘My husband left early one morning with one of my sons to look for pasture and water for the cattle because of the drought. In the field, my husband was shot dead by bandits, and the livestock were stolen…,’’ she sobbed. ‘‘Fortunately, my son escaped unhurt and brought us the bad news.

The body of her husband was found six days later with the help of the police and the area assistant chief. Ms. Everline was left with the responsibility of taking care of her six children.

‘‘I went back home with my six children. I did not have anything to feed my children with. My husband was killed, and all our livestock, which included goats and sheep, were stolen,’’ she recalled the painful experience. She now sells vegetables at a local center to earn a living.

Henry Cheburet, her brother, is leading an initiative to bring women together in farming activities in a move to offer alternative sources of income as opposed to livestock rearing. He advises that men should also embrace keeping a small and manageable number of animals.

‘‘I ask the government to provide water to the people by digging boreholes and constructing dams. Women also need to be sensitized and empowered on farming activities and other alternative sources of income,’’ he said.

Insecurity along the West Pokot County border has contributed to the increased cases of deaths among locals who move from one place to another to look for pasture and water for their livestock. Many of them are killed, and their livestock stolen, leaving their women and children languishing in dire poverty.

Ms. Christine Kandie, a human rights activist working with Endorois Indigenous Women Empowerment Network in Baringo, claims that rampant women-headed households in the area have made women direct their efforts toward providing security for their families instead of using the same energy to engage in income-generating activities.

‘‘Their minds are now occupied with how they can provide security for their families instead of productive work,’’ she said.

Pastoralists from West Pokot have also been moving their livestock to the neighboring country, Uganda, during the dry season. Across the border is Amudat district in Uganda which is approximately 100 kilometers from Kapenguria in West Pokot. Amudat is led by a Local Councillor (LC5) who is an equivalent of a Kenyan county governor.

LC5 of Amudat District, Joseph Lobot, says two years the drought has been a big challenge for women who feed their families. He confirmed that people from Baringo and West Pokot crossed the border to Amudat, Uganda, to look for pasture and water for their livestock.

This, he says, “attracts a large number of livestock in Amudat than the area can accommodate and feed.”

“The high number of livestock witnessed in Uganda has led, for the first time, to increased malnutrition among the people in Amudat. For the first time, Amudat became one of the Karamajong districts to record high cases of malnutrition due to the decrease in milk production in the district,’’ Lobot said.

The Uganda administration, through the Amudat District, has started engaging the pastoral communities to solve border conflicts witnessed along the borders.

‘‘We have cross-border projects where the communities have embraced ‘Feed the Future,’ a project of SIKOM Peace Network, where community cross-border resilience activities will be launched, including watershed management,’’ he said.

SIKOM Peace Network is an organization working in West Pokot that is championing cross-border resilience activities to foster peace and cooperation between the pastoral communities and mitigate the effects of climate change.

The director of SIKOM, Joseph Akaule, confirmed that they have started a ‘Drought Recovery’ project that will focus on both the Kenyan and Ugandan sides (Amudat district) and teach women about bee keeping and honey production to reduce the cutting down of trees by women to burn charcoal.

‘‘To reduce cutting trees in the name of charcoal, which directly affects our climate, we have introduced bee keeping as an alternative income-generating activity for women,’’ he said.

Mr. Akaule has cited chicken rearing and family care skills as very important activities that women need to learn in the absence of their husbands.

‘‘We want men to leave a few animals at home when they move out in search of pasture and water,’’ he said.

He advises the national government and the county government to set aside funds to ensure that livestock moved to Uganda are brought back when the drought comes to an end.

‘‘We established a Peace Directorate with an aim of securing some funds to secure our animals when they cross borders,’’ he said.

West Pokot Meteorological Department indicates that Pokot North and Central Pokot sub-counties are the most hit areas by the drought. Catastrophic consequences of the recurrent drought in Kenya continue to worsen, leaving communities in dire need of humanitarian aid.

World Bank data shows that about 5.4 million people are projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity between March and June this year.

Another 1.2 million people are likely to be in the emergency phase. This latest projection highlights a 43 percent increase in people facing high levels of food insecurity compared to the same period last year.

The women of Pokot are appealing to both the national and county governments to initiate and support sustainable alternative economic activities and projects to enable residents to make a living, preserve lives, and mitigate the effects of climate change.